Ascended Plains
by Sara Loui
Summary: sequel to 'A trip to Ascended Plains'
1. Default Chapter

"Uh Hello, Oma? Oma? OMA!"  
  
Still nothing just a spinning ball of white with tendrils of white surrounded by an ambience of, white.  
  
"Oma, will you stop spinning and talk to me for a moment"  
  
Nothing, well except for the tendril of light aiming for him, flicking him and being withdrawn.  
  
"Ha ha very funny" says Daniel, stopping his flying spin across the room mid flight, to float lightly just out of tendril reach. He could just make out Oma's smile as she continued spinning.  
  
"Fine, be like this. I'll go in an ask them myself."  
  
Heading for porthole, he could feel the presence of the spinning ball of light slowing to eye him thoughtfully.  
  
"I wouldn't go in there if I were you" came the voice from above.  
  
"I wasn't asking for your opinion thankyou very much"  
  
"Yes you did"  
  
"No I didn't"  
  
"You were thinking of asking my opinion"  
  
"No I wasn't"  
  
"Yes you were"  
  
Daniel sighed a deep sigh, turned and flew forward only to reverberate off a tree.  
  
"Oh great you too are working together" said Daniel, raising his eyes above him. "You keep me talking while Oma changes the surroundings?"  
  
"God I love my Job" replied the voice cheerily.  
  
Daniel looked over to Oma, who raised and eyebrow and smiled.  
  
"Patience is a virtue," she said before raising off the ground a few inches and pirouetting.  
  
Daniel sighed, and settled on a boulder. 


	2. chapter 2

Daniel was jerked from his thoughts by the voice from above.  
  
"Yo, tendril boy where she gone?"  
  
Daniel looked about him to find Oma nowhere to be seen. He looked up to the sky, and rolled his eyes.  
  
"Aren't you the all knowing voice?"  
  
"No he's took a few days off, I am 'The Voice from Above'" said the voice from above, accentuating the name with a few booms.  
  
Daniel rolled his eyes again.  
  
"Tendril boy?" he asked already bored with the conversation.  
  
"Sound's a lot better than Daniel Jackson, archaeologist extraordinaire." Said the voice with the hints of sarcasm which reminded Daniel of conversations past with Jack O'Neill. "Look you are what you are, a ball of all knowing, all powerful, tendrillly, light."  
  
"Yes I know," said Daniel a little dejected and morphing himself into the physical body of his life before ascension.  
  
"Hey don't forget you chose this"  
  
"I didn't choose to sit around watching my friends struggle to fight a force as powerful as Anubis not knowing how powerful he truly is"  
  
"Don't give the guy too much credit, he has less power than you think"  
  
"Yeah and still more power than they think"  
  
"Well they're on the ball now thanks to your help, which may I remind you has brought you to your current predicament"  
  
"If you had descended Anubis correctly none of this would have happened. Trouble is he was even more powerful than you all thought, which is why he is what he is now"  
  
"We did what we could"  
  
"And I did what I could"  
  
"Which wasn't much"  
  
"I didn't ask...."  
  
"For my opinion, yeah I know. Look I give you credit for trying to help them, taking on Anubis that was mighty big of you. But you broke the rules, major rules, you knew it would come to this."  
  
"Well Oma de Sala hasn't exactly followed the rules, I mean come on, she ascended a whole planet of people. You know I had to move cloud"  
  
"Oma is Oma, she saved those people from their certain death. Moreover, remember those people are your family. You on the other hand were interacting with other peoples life, their future."  
  
"I couldn't stand around and just watch them losing the battle."  
  
"You managed to when O'Neill was held by Baal, even then you were pushing it by offering him ascension."  
  
"Well I was newly ascended then, I didn't realise how little we can do with this all knowing, all powerful life. I could have stopped Baal, destroyed everything he was working on. Jack knew that, I knew that, I was naive. I stood and watched him go through torture after torture and I did nothing. I did nothing and he teetered on becoming less the man he is."  
  
"You wouldn't have been able to stop Baal. The powers that be would have stopped you before you had the chance. Maybe they had more faith in O'Neill and your friends more than you did. And you would have been in the same predicament as you are now"  
  
"Promise me something if they do decide to descend me, make sure I don't end up like Anubis"  
  
"Like Anubis, hell you better pray you don't end up like me" 


	3. chapter 3

Daniel paced.  
  
The voice from above was strangely quiet.  
  
Daniel paced somemore.  
  
The voice sighed.  
  
Daniel paused and glanced upwards and saw, nothing.  
  
The voice grunted and sighed again mumbling something incoherent.  
  
Daniel frowned.  
  
"Are you asleep?" he asked in a loud irritated voice.  
  
"Hmmm? What? Huh?" said the voice in sleepy tone.  
  
"Are you asleep"  
  
"Yes Daniel I'm fast asleep"  
  
"Here I am pacing a really long hole into the ground and you sleep"  
  
"Well what do you want me to do, count your paces?"  
  
"Advise me, isn't that what your supposed to do?"  
  
"Um.....No" replied the voice.  
  
"Then why do your hang over me so much" said Daniel his irritation rising.  
  
"Because your interesting. Your not like the rest of the ascended beings around here. Plus I dont want to miss it when they tell you what's going to happen to you"  
  
Daniel frowned again.  
  
"You know most of the ascended being people things generally become all 'rhyme and reason, cryptic speeches, stuck up, holier than thou' type beings. You didn't. Must admit we had a bet that your were going that way when you visited O'Neill. I forgot to thankyou, I won"  
  
Daniel slumped onto a rock.  
  
"Hey I'll tell you the truth" said the voice in a hushed tone "I was actually rooting for you when you tried to help your buddies, just dont tell anyone"  
  
Daniel perked up a little.  
  
"Thankyou...I think"  
  
"Look little buddy..."  
  
"Little buddy?"daniel repeated in a 'did you just call me little buddy?' voice  
  
"Hey man from up here your the size of a full stop"  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Actually no, but your really really small....Anyway as I was saying...."  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Gimme a minute and I'll remember"  
  
Daniel sighed.  
  
The voice sighed.  
  
They both waited. 


	4. chapter 4

"Oh Danny boy, the pipes the pipes are calling"  
  
Daniel groaned, and spun on his heel.  
  
"Do you have to sing" he asked the voice with irritation.  
  
"Actually I was telling you they are ready to see you now. Don't you hear the pipes?" replied the voice with a mild scorn.  
  
Daniel stopped and listened.  
  
"All I hear are drips like from a tap that's leaking"  
  
"That would be the pipes. We keep asking them to get them fixed, but oh no, you ascended beings are too busy interfering with the living people to fix the water pipes. Instead you use the leaks as signals, which can be really really annoying"  
  
"Now you know how they feel having to listen to you all the time" replied Daniel with a slight annoyance  
  
"Hmmph, well as I was saying" replied the voice (you could almost hear the pout) "They will see you now"  
  
"And where exactly is it they will be seeing me?" asked Daniel, glancing about the clearing he'd been stood for he didn't know how long.  
  
Suddenly everything disappeared and Daniel found himself standing on a small stage. A lone light beamed down on him although he couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from. Daniel found himself taking a deep breath and peering into a black unknown.  
  
"Daniel Jackson" boomed a voice from above him.  
  
It wasn't the voice; it was another voice which he didn't recognise. He wished it was the voice as this one seemed imposing and made him nervous. It also sounded closer than the voice. He was about to reply in answer to his name, but it continued before he had a chance.  
  
"You have been called before the counsel for the serious crime of interfering with the future of those you hold dear to you."  
  
"Okay" said Daniel, unsure if he was to reply or see what would happen. For an ascended all knowing being he didn't know anything about legal procedure in the ascended life.  
  
In front of him appeared four beings in humanoid form. He assumed they were the counsel. Oma sat behind them, she being the only onlooker he could ascertain was present unless the voice was still around. All of them had the ever present glow outlining their bodies. There were two female and two male. One of the males stood.  
  
"Daniel Jackson we have been observing your case for some time. Yours is an unusual one which came to our attention long ago. You showed a promise in finding the legacy of the ascension and yet we felt you and your race, save a few, were still a long time in knowing the true meaning and understanding of ascension. Oma de Sala however, saw fit to perhaps entice you a little about ascension."  
  
Daniel shifted his eyes from the speaker to Oma who was grinning like the cat who had gotten the cream as her name was mentioned.  
  
"She brought your case to us at the time your human state was in danger of ceasing, asking us to allow your ascension if you so chose. We had mixed feeling about this however, Oma went ahead and here you are. And as we imagined you have already followed in her footsteps"  
  
Daniel still wasn't sure whether he was to reply to anything of what the counsellor was saying. At this point the current speaker sat and one of the females stood.  
  
"Daniel Jackson, what you attempted to do against both Anubis and for your friends may be considered heroic perhaps in your former life. But do you realise what tables you were tipping by taking such a decision upon yourself?"  
  
Daniel wasn't sure he wanted to answer that question. He felt like a schoolchild being brought up to the principal for doing something wrong. He looked down and scuffed his foot on the floor.  
  
"No Ma'am"  
  
The other female stood and took over.  
  
"Oma de Sala has argued your case to us however in light of your particular situation Daniel Jackson; we feel you should perhaps have the final say in the decision of your future here. They are not easy decisions, but will perhaps teach you more about yourself and this new life you chose to embark upon"  
  
Daniel felt nervous wondering where this was leading. Both the females sat and the last counsellor stood.  
  
"The choices are twofold and we ask you consider them wisely before deciding. Your life here has been a strange one. Your constant watchfulness of your friends in your former human life has prevented you from learning so much from the continuing path of your ascension. Your choices are these. You can continue here, in this life, learning, continuing, and growing. What you have learned so far barely touches the surface of life here. However if you continue here, all ties of your former life will be severed. No more constant watching to see what problems and situations you can help them through. Or, we can send you back, and live as you formerly were as a human. However, it is not possible to return you as you once were. As human yes, as the Daniel Jackson you once were no. The trauma of being returned can have serious repercussions on beings as frail and intricate as humans. It is a risk some have taken, and yes some in time retrieved lost memories. But we cannot promise you will remember who you are and what life you lived. We will allow some time for you to consider these options."  
  
"I've made my decision"  
  
The speaker who was about to sit by the others look curiously at Daniel, as did the others. In fact all eyes had shot upon him at such a quick decision.  
  
"Send me back"  
  
"You do understand ..." Said the former speaker straightening up.  
  
"That I won't have any memory at all yes. But I'd rather take the chance and at least maybe retrieve my memory than exist here with memories of those I hold dear to me and yet unable to do anything when they are in desperate situations. I can't stand around and do nothing. That's not who I was as a human and certainly not what I will be as an ascended being. I have all this power and I'm allowed to do nothing. You're right I wasn't ready to become this, but I didn't see it, Oma didn't see it. Like me she saw someone in need and decided to offer them a better way out. She was wrong but I thank her for the opportunity, but I'm ready to go back. If I can' make a difference here, I sure as hell can try and make a difference back there, memory or no memory"  
  
The four counsellors stood, a female speaker stepping slightly forward.  
  
"This is your final decision"  
  
"Yes" replied Daniel without a blink of an eye or second thought.  
  
"It was nice knowing you Danny" said the voice, with a sob  
  
"Are you crying" said Daniel looking up a moment  
  
"No I just caught in a rain cloud that's all" replied the voice blubbing.  
  
Once again the surroundings changed. Daniel was once more floating with the four counsellors in front of him. He spun round looking for Oma, to find her lightly floating beside him.  
  
"Such potential" she sighed, poking him with a tendril "I had such high hopes, revolution and all that sort of thing"  
  
"Sorry to disappoint" replied Daniel with a smile.  
  
"Don't worry Daniel" whispered Oma "We still win"  
  
"What do you mean?" whispered back Daniel  
  
"You'll see, eventually" replied Oma, "goodbye Daniel, it was fun while it lasted"  
  
With that Oma lifted off into the air, pulling a hankie from her person with a tendril of light and heading upwards. Daniel could still hear the sobs from the voice.  
  
"Daniel Jackson as is your right you have chosen to return to the life you once lived." Said the counsel together  
  
He fell sharply, as if his floating ability had just cut out, the light emanating around him and was getting brighter and he screwed his eyes shut as he fell, the light still penetrating his closed lids.  
  
.....................  
  
A cool wind carried a voice arousing him from what seemed to be a deep sleep. The wind whipped about his body sharply. He opened an eye, squinting at the light. His body felt wooden and stiff as if he hadn't used it for a long time and the grit of the ground was grating over his skin. As he squinted upwards a shape took place blocking the light. The same voice which the wind had carried over to him now spoke down from him.  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
As similar questions raced through his mind he answered with all honesty  
  
"I don't know"  
  
The End 


End file.
